Harris Theatre

652 McKean Avenue,
Donora, PA 15033

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LouisRugani
LouisRugani on July 12, 2010 at 3:45 pm

(May 8, 1958, The Daily Independent, Monesen PA)
Donora Theatre To Close Sunday
The Harris Theatre in Donora will close its doors after the last performance Sunday night, Mrs. I. Russell Davis, manager, announced
today.
The Warner Brothers-owned theatre is being closed for the summer months because of present economic conditions, it was stated.
Mrs. Davis said it is hoped the theatre will open again in Sepember.

Bruce Calvert
Bruce Calvert on February 21, 2010 at 3:55 pm

I have a couple of postcards from the Grand Theatre in Donora advertising the Vitagraph 1911 film VANITY FAIR. Although only a three-reeler, it was a huge production at a time when most films were only one reel.

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dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on February 21, 2009 at 11:48 pm

Lost Memory: Here is a 43 minute video from the Weather Channel about the Donora Death Fog.

sbevusa
sbevusa on May 10, 2008 at 7:45 pm

Here is a link to a photo of how the theater looks these days:

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sharkbamford
sharkbamford on December 7, 2007 at 7:34 am

I grew up in Donora in the 70’s. The Liberty was the only one left then – it was very run down. I saw Willie Wonka there. Then it closed, and reopened around 76. I remember a double-bill there also – was Tom Thumb, and a strange documentary tiltled Beyond and Back. We saw a very grainy/linty Jaws there about a year after it’s realease. Then it became an adult theatre.

Growing up in Donora at this point of time was unique. The townsfolk always spoke of this magical “days gone by” era, of economic vibrancy. The mills were gone, we watched all the car dealers, stores, JC Penney, etc slowly close up. Gosh, we had a McDonalds that opened, then closed it’s doors two years later! There were scores of neighborhood stores, 4 or 5 to a block – all gone now.

I have an old postcard from the Grand Theatre.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 29, 2007 at 7:15 pm

The Grand should be listed as an aka.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on January 25, 2007 at 10:24 am

According to information received from the Donora Public Library, a 1976 diamond jubilee program states, in part, “Hopton and Evans built the Grand Theater on McKean Avenue. Later it became known as the Harris Theater. The word ‘Grand’ is inscribed in stone above the front of the building. It was at the Grand Theater where Dick Powell came to sing and act, as well as other famous singers and actors. Boxing shows were also held on the stage of the Grand Theater.”

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on January 7, 2007 at 7:30 am

The Harris opened in 1930 and closed in 1961.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on December 22, 2006 at 6:30 am

Wasn’t there a relationship of some sort btwn the Warner Studios and the Stanley-Warner Theatres – possibly S-W taking over the Warner theatres after the Paramount Consent Decree or something like that?

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on December 22, 2006 at 3:16 am

This was a Warner Bros. Theatre, remodeled in 1949 with architect Victor A. Rigaumont, according to the site referenced by Lost Memory. It doesn’t state when it was originally built or when it was closed and demolished.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on December 21, 2006 at 11:45 pm

I’m familiar with the death fog – I hadn’t yet arrived on the scene, but my mother was living there then, and I’d been told all about it. Even as a kid in the 50s I can remember the town was full of smoke from the zinc works at the mill, not as bad as the death-fog, but it was pretty bad – and everything was filthy dirty. I would get up in the morning, take a bath, put on clean clothes, come downstairs and my grandmother would say “Davey, honey, run down to the mailbox and get the mail”. She lived in town, so it wasn’t far to the mailbox at the street. When I came back in I’d be filthy just from the soot on the stair railings and mailbox. The town is in the Monongahela River valley, and all the smoke was stuck there in the valley. You couldn’t get away from it in town because in those days nobody had air conditioning, not even the stores. Many of the towns in the river valley south of Pittsburgh had various US Steel or J&L Steel operations creating similar conditions, but none as bad as the death fog in Donora. I recall that even in downtown Pittsburgh at noon all the street lights would be on and the stores had their signs lit because it looked like dusk outside due to the smoke. Today, most of the mills are gone and the few that remain have heavy pollution controls on them, and now Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. BTW, the Loews Waterfront Theatre is build on the site of the US Steel Homestead Works – which was also spewing out a lot of smoke back in the day. The mill was dismantled except for the smokestacks, and redeveloped into a retail-entertainment-residential area called “The Stacks”.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on December 21, 2006 at 5:52 am

Lost Memory, are you here in NY, or where? How do you find this stuff? You always come up with info on obscure theatres in obsure places, in addition to your wealth of NY info. My mother grew up in Donora and when I came along we lived in Pittsburgh and would go to Donora to visit my Grandmother. The town was a bustling place then, the mill (US Steel) was running and the people were working. I don’t remember this theatre or the Palace. I only remember the Liberty Theatre being open and operating – it had a lot of green neon and a small marquee. The Princess Theatre was still standing, but the lobby was being used as a cab-stand and bus station, and they stored school buses and taxi cabs in the auditorium. I can remember, as a little kid waiting with my mother for the bus back to Pgh, peeking through a doorway into the old auditorium, where there still a few theatre seats gripping the floor among the taxis. The stage draperies, filthy and tattered were still hanging by threads, and the old paint was peeling from the walls and ceiling. As time went by, the mill shut down and Donora fell on hard times. The relatives moved out (they had worked in the mill) and I haven’t been there in over 30 years.